Students Allege Financial Mismanagement, Intensify Protest Against Vice Chancellor

Students gheraoed the office of West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences Vice-Chancellor (V-C) Nirmal Kanti Chakrabarti,  protesting against the "glaring lack of financial transparency" and "administrative failure".

The student protests have intensified following last week's Supreme Court judgment in a sexual harassment case against Vice Chancellor Nirmal Kanti Chakrabarti filed by a faculty member.

While the top court dismissed the complaint as time-barred, it ordered that the judgment "shall be made part of the VC's resume". The complaint filed by the faculty member alleged harassment between 2019 and April 2023.

The students are on an indefinite protest and have gheraoed the Vice Chancellor's office since this morning.  

"Our protest is not an isolated reaction to a single incident. It is a collective cry born out of months, even years of silence, frustration, and disappointment. It is an action born out of desperation, post the grave allegations of sexual harassment levelled against the VC, which has to be mandatorily included in his resume, as directed by the Hon'ble SC, the glaring lack of financial transparency, and the systematic pattern of administrative failures, persistent apathy, and growing disconnect between the administration and its students and faculty members," read a statement from protesting students.

The students underlined that they are "united in our demand for accountability, justice, and the restoration of faith in the leadership of this institution".

"We believe that the values of integrity, equality, and fairness that our university teaches must first be upheld within its own walls," said the statement.